ACM TechNews - Wednesday, August 7, 2002

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ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 383
Date: August 7, 2002

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Top Stories for Wednesday, August 7, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"U.S. Copyright Law Has Hackers On the Defensive"
"Presidential Advisers Adopt Antiterror Research Plan"
"Group OKs Changes for Net Commerce"
"As Roller Coaster Dips Again, They Want Another Ride"
"Internet Traffic Flows Smoothly After Warning"
"When Brains Meet Computer Brawn"
"IT Workers Expected to Start Testing Waters"
"Chip Trio Allows Glimpse Into 'Cell'"
"Engineer Looks to Human Brain"
"New Supercomputer to Simulate Internet Apps"
"Quantum Computer Called Possible with Today's Tech"
"End User Licenses Keep Getting More Intrusive"
"NSF, Intelligence Community Work on Data-Mining Research"
"I Come to Bury IAmCarbonatedMilk.com, Not to Praise It"
"Would-Be Math Teacher Ended Up Educating a Computer Revolution"
"Demand for Java Begins to Percolate"
"IT Workers on Way to Joining Unions?"
"Why Software Is So Bad"

******************* News Stories ***********************

"U.S. Copyright Law Has Hackers On the Defensive"
Attendees and participants at the DefCon hacker conference in Las
Vegas this weekend were more wary of the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA), which led to the arrest of a Russian
programmer at the same event last year.  However, some were ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item1

"Presidential Advisers Adopt Antiterror Research Plan"
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
(PCAST) on Monday approved a draft report for the president
suggesting that technology play a prominent role in the new
Department of Homeland Security.  In addition to the creation of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item2

"Group OKs Changes for Net Commerce"
The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws
approved of revisions to the Uniform Computer Information
Transactions Act (UCITA) last week.  The amendments, announced
Monday, forbid software companies from responding to consumer ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item3

"As Roller Coaster Dips Again, They Want Another Ride"
Silicon Valley venture capitalists and engineers are optimistic
despite the economic slump, which has worsened with recent
indictments of executives and revelations of insider trading,
stock market manipulation, and accounting fraud.  Draper Fisher ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item4

"Internet Traffic Flows Smoothly After Warning"
The Internet continued to operate normally on Tuesday, despite an
FBI warning Monday evening issued to network engineers and ISPs
that "wide-scale hacker attacks" were being plotted against
American Web sites and Internet providers from sources in Western ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item5

"When Brains Meet Computer Brawn"
A recent report from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and
the Department of Commerce summarizes the long-term outlook of
national leaders in science and technology.  The report,
"Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance: ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item6

"IT Workers Expected to Start Testing Waters"
The IT turnover rate has declined approximately 1 percent in the
last year, according to META Group's 2002 IT Staffing and
Compensation Guide, but META analyst Maria Schafer concludes that
company loyalty is a thing of the past.  "If anything, you have a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item7

"Chip Trio Allows Glimpse Into 'Cell'"
IBM, Sony, and Toshiba have collaborated on the design for a new
multimedia processor dubbed the Cell that will soon be passed to
engineers for sample manufacturing.  The "supercomputer on a
chip" is described by sources as having "multiple personalities," ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item8

"Engineer Looks to Human Brain"
As computer chips become smaller and denser with information,
they consume more energy, so a more efficient approach is needed.
Computer engineers such as IBM senior technologist Kerry
Bernstein are turning to the human brain as a computing model.  ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item9

"New Supercomputer to Simulate Internet Apps"
Rice University's new 1-teraflop supercomputer will help
researchers there create development tools for applications that
scale to hundreds of connected computers over the Internet.  Rice
Computer and Information Technology Institute director Jan ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item10

"Quantum Computer Called Possible with Today's Tech"
University of Wisconsin, Madison, scientists declare that they
have successfully modeled the architecture of a quantum computer
using existing equipment for silicon fabrication.  "Our technique
may enable quantum computers to actually begin performing ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item11

"End User Licenses Keep Getting More Intrusive"
Dan Gillmor writes that operating system vendors are increasingly
encroaching on users' rights through End User License Agreements
(EULAs).  Microsoft's latest agreement gives the company
permission to automatically check the Windows OS and/or its ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item12

"NSF, Intelligence Community Work on Data-Mining Research"
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is working to coordinate
technology development efforts in the research community and
national security interests.  Researchers at the Intelligence
Technology Innovation Center (ITIC) are working with the NSF to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item13

"I Come to Bury IAmCarbonatedMilk.com, Not to Praise It"
Looking at domain name expirations presents a portrait of the
dot-com boom in all its high hopes and deepest follies.
BuyClamsOnline.com expired on April 12, 2002, which means someone
thought that people would buy clams online rather than from a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item14

"Would-Be Math Teacher Ended Up Educating a Computer Revolution"
Frances Allen, who retired last week as a research fellow of
IBM's T.J. Watson Laboratory, has enjoyed many fruitful years as
a computer scientist, and her distinguished career encompasses
much of the field's history.  Projects she has been involved in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item15

"Demand for Java Begins to Percolate"
Demand for expertise in Java and XML Web development is rising,
according to DevX's 2002 Java/Application Development Market and
Brand study, which polled 14,000 IT developers.  Seventy-seven
percent of respondents say their sites use Sun Microsystems' Java ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item16

"IT Workers on Way to Joining Unions?"
Layoffs and falling salary levels are making IT unionization a
more and more appealing prospect, although director of UCLA's
Institute for Labor and Employment Ruth Milkman notes that "Some
workers in this industry see themselves as being on the cutting ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item17

"Why Software Is So Bad"
Engineers posit that software quality is declining because it
suffers from a profound lack of design.  The increasing size and
complexity of programs have significantly reduced the
effectiveness of the "code and fix" method, in which programmers ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0807w.html#item18


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